With Robyn Scott and Ntombi Makhutshi. Directed by Lara Bye. Written by Nicholas Spagnoletti. Multi-award winner including 3 Fleur du Caps, the Olive Schreiner Prize and The Stage (Edinburgh) award for best actress.

LONDON ROAD. Directed by Lara Bye, with Ntombi Makhutshi and Robyn Scott. At the Kalk Bay Theatre until April 10. TERRI DUNBAR-CURRAN reviews.

THERE’S a nervous familiarity between the women as they stand, bench between them, admiring the view. Stella smiles tentatively, wary of Rosa’s easy chatter. Despite the vast differences between the strong Nigerian woman abandoned by her husband and the elderly Jewish widow, their slow blossoming friendship is all they have.

As Rosa digs in her handbag for the bread she has saved for the seagulls, the trivial conversation turns carefully from the view, to matters of the heart and missing family. Stella, once guarded and angry, turns, face softening, to comfort the elderly woman. The small, yet powerful gesture of a caring hand on a shoulder captures the essence of this story.

Lara Bye’s production of London Road, written by Nicholas Spagnoletti in collaboration with the director and cast, takes an intimate look at the lives of two women thrown together after a brush with crime.

We meet Stella, played by Ntombi Makhutshi, and Rosa, played by Robyn Scott, as they discover that Stella’s humble home has been broken into. A poor woman, paying exorbitant rent, and doing whatever she can to survive, Stella is instantly suspicious of Rosa’s presence in her flat.

Makhutshi plays the character with controlled strength, she strides, glares and leans heavily on the back of a chair, sizing up the inquisitive woman who has wormed her way into her private space. The pain in her eyes is evident as she speaks of her husband, but with a sharp suck of her teeth, she is in control once more.

Makhutshi’s performance is stirring, especially as her character comes to realise the importance of the new friendship.

Scott’s Rosa, in comparison, is quick to connect with a stranger. There is a desperate loneliness about the way she invites the Nigerian woman into her home and takes care of her. It is clearly more than just neighbourly curiosity, she craves the company.

Scott is engaging as the elderly woman. She shuffles across the stage, gapes in awe and, as she disappears back into memories, she sweeps the audience along with her.

From a cup of tea with “bickies” to the tissue tucked up her cardigan sleeve, Scott creates a beautifully detailed portrait of a woman as real as our own grandparents.

She captures the vulnerability and wry humour of her character completely. Rosa’s frank observations create just the right amount of levity to balance the pathos of the show.

While there is a rough plot – it serves mainly to highlight the passing of time. It is the characters that really drive the story forward and Scott and Makhutshi, both strong performers, pour so much emotion into Rosa and Stella that it’s difficult not to care what happens to them.

They have such presence that the silent moments on stage at times convey far more than any lines could even attempt.

This is far more than just a story of opposites – it’s a story of loss, loneliness, strength and survival. It is also the tale of a changing neighbourhood and the shift in attitude of its residents.

Making use of a table and two chairs, Craig Leo’s set is uncluttered and combined with emotive lighting by Faheem Bardien and sound by Braam du Toit, London Road is awash with lingering, powerful images of the two women in relation to one another. It’s those tender vignettes that linger long after the lights have faded.

· London Road will show at Kalk Bay Theatre at 8.30pm from Wednesday to Saturday until April 10. Tickets are R100. To book, call 073 220 5430.

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Reviews

London Road, Sea Point’ is a truly wonderful piece of theatre. Robyn Scott and Ntombi Makhutshi are nothing short of glorious as a Jewish widow and a Nigerian immigrant, an unlikely duo thrust together by chance and circumstance, who discover they have more in common than they thought. The perceptibly …read more

Not all good stories are about big things. Sometimes epic stakes can be found in the smallest of relationships. Nicholas Spagnoletti’s London Road, Sea Point shows how everyday encounters can change lives. Rosa is a Jewish grandmother who lives in the same block as Stella, an immigrant from Nigeria. This …read more

Sometimes drama need not be an overwhelming, thrilling ride. Sometimes drama is in the minutiae of our daily lives. Rosa and Stella’s story is compellingly told, with a real sense of the passage of time and a deepening of love between two women, drawn together by simple circumstance and held …read more

It was almost a treat to receive this rather negative review which makes the rest of the hysterical praise all the sweeter. London Road is a street in the now-affluent Cape Town suburb of Sea Point. But it wasn’t always that way. It was once seen as a dangerous area …read more

Our humanity is best, and perhaps only, expressed when we do the unexpected, such as showing compassion to a stranger or, conversely, being unnecessarily cruel and malicious to a friend or family member. London Road focuses on the former, revealing how a random act of kindness can enrich people’s lives …read more

“All the Jewish men went home and called their mothers. A few elderly women trembled a little in fear of what lies ahead, while any Nigerian drug dealers reckoned they came out of it looking pretty decent. And everyone in the audience agreed they really had seen a very special piece of theatre.” …read more